Amy Tybuec didn’t remember the phone call until her cell phone rang. It was four o’clock in the afternoon, and she, her boyfriend, and her daughters Kayley and Hope were on their way to Conway.

She looked at her phone and remembered. She was going to receive a phone call that day from Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit Christian organization that helps build houses for families in need. The phone call would tell her whether or not she had been chosen as the 2013 homeowner for the Habitat for Humanity house after she was one of the final three applicants in the selection process.

Tybuec became excited and hopeful — two emotions she had tried to keep in check over the last few months, as she had gone through the process of applying to be this year’s homeowner.

“I was fighting it, but my mind was running about getting a home,” she said. “I couldn’t let that go, because that’s my dream.”

“My heart hit the floor,” she said. “I said, ‘Okay, get ready, because you might not have it.’”

She answered the phone. Seconds later, she started screaming.

“They asked, ‘Are you sitting down?’” she said. “When they told me [I was chosen as the homeowner], I just started screaming. I was crying and shaking. It was great.”

It was both a literal dream come true and an answer to prayer for Tybuec, a Russellville native, and weeks after being chosen, the thought of the house still brings her to tears.

“I’ve had dreams that I’d finally get a home,” she said. “I’d have dreams that I’d stand back and look at it and just say, ‘Oh my goodness.’ This is our dream come true, it really is. I’ve prayed so much about it.”

Tybuec will not be a recipient of the house; instead, she’ll make monthly mortgage payments and pay off the house, earning her the title of “homeowner.” Habitat will begin fundraising efforts this month to raise money for the building of the house, which they plan to have finished by late fall.

The organization will host a fundraiser at Papa John’s on Monday and Tuesday, then at Chick Fil-A on April 18.

“I’m very grateful for [being chosen],” Tybuec said. “If something happens to me, my kids will be taken care of. They’ll have a home.”

Her daughters Kayley, 14, and Hope, 8, match Tybuec’s excitement. Kayley, who her mother describes as very independent, loves horses and wants to be a veterinarian. Hope, who Tybuec said is “a little angel,” wants to be a special-needs teacher after spending time with her special-needs cousin.

The road to homeownership has been a tough one for Tybuec and her family, who view the house as not just a gift from God, but a new beginning.

But despite the difficulties, it’s been a learning experience for the three.

“I’m grateful for what my kids have learned, that there’s people out there that are struggling real bad, and to be grateful for the little things that you do have,” she said. “And it’s really humbled them a lot, because they’re real lovable with each other. Sometimes that’s all you got is family, and for me my family is my girls, and that’s it. And they know that sometimes you have rough patches, and it’s okay to cry, it’s okay to struggle, but it always passes. I’ve worked like crazy, and I told them, ‘Every dog has its day.’”

“My girls are going to have a place to call home,” she added. “Finally.”

But not only Tybuec finds it a godsend.

“One thing that I always pray about is for God to find us the right person, and somehow he always does,” said Lori Grace, president of the Habitat for Humanity Pope County affiliate. “It’s been a godsend for both.”